The Martian Chronicles Study Guide

Chapter Summaries

The Martian Chronicles Summary of Chapters

To begin with, there is a brief introduction where only a few activities take place. The temperatures hit the cold season of winter and a rocket from Ohio is blasted off into the atmosphere.

The story then kicks off as Yll and Ylla are seen to be a Martian (from Mars) couple who are not in good terms with their marriage, in contrast to their initial happy relationship. Ylla dreams that a mysterious Earth man, Nathaniel York will one day come to Mars and make her fall irresistibly in love with him. Unfortunately, Yll heads for the Earth men as soon as Ylla reveals that the Earth men were soon to arrive.

The Martians are seen to behave in a bizarre nature. They suddenly sing songs and poems from Earth that were specifically from the 1940 America.

At last! Captain Jonathan Williams makes a successful trip to Mars and the Martians finally meet them but unsurprised by their arrival. The Martians were telepathic and so their hallucinations were, therefore, visible to others.They come across a psychologist named Mr. Xxx who thinks Captain William was crazy and that his crew was his hallucinations. He eventually shoots all of them and even shoots himself out of the assumption that he was also crazy after realizing the dead bodies and the rocket were still visible.

Chapter 6-10

A captain named John Black arrives on Mars with 16 other men but they find Midwestern towns just like on Earth. Out of suspicion, Black investigates and they bump into their dead relatives which only makes it very strange. The captain gets distracted when he meets his deceased brother and parents but it was only a trap. They end up dead and the Martians plan to bury them.

The fourth voyage then arrives on Mars and since karma has a way of working its magic, they find that the Martians are dead from smallpox. One of the men on the voyage named Biggs ends up colliding with another called Spender as Biggs decides to make a fun out of mocking and destroying Martian property but Spender kills him. Captain Wilder sides with Spender but ends up executing him as a consequence of Biggs death.

A disturbed character known as Benjamin Driscoll is introduced in the chapter. His discomfort mainly comes from the thin air on Mars and in time he opts to grow trees but they fail to grow. Over one night, it rains and the trees burst forth into maturity.

Just like an anticipated alien invasion, humans travel in large numbers to occupy Earth. As soon as they arrive, they get to work and they build houses and buildings which were just a carbon copy of the ones left on Earth.

Chapter 11-15

A man named Tomas Gomez expresses his excitement on one night. He comes across an old man who